Newbie---- question about engraving

JimmyB

Member
Hi all,
I'm new to knifemaking and am purchasing equipment and materials to make a few knives. My plan is to make them for Christmas presents. I want to engrave or etch my initials, date and knife number on the knife. I've looked at "The Personalizer" but have no idea how it works, I've thought of using small letter stamping stencils. I don't want to use a vibrating engraver unless I can make the lettering look nice.
What do you guys use to inscribe with on your knives?
Thanks in advance,
Jimmy
 
Aloha! I'm just as curious as you are about marking knives, and you are in the right place to ask that question.
 
Engraving steel just about takes a power graver and even with hand engraving the equiptment can be a bit on the pricy side. I would go with the electrochemical etching. The Personalizer is just one machine that will do the job. Etch-O-Matic is another maker that sells an electochemical etching systems plus stencil makers. USA Knifemaker Supply also markets one. If you have a old fashioned type writer with keys or a daisey wheel you can get some stencil material that you can type your. You can also make a pattern with a graphics program on your computer. You then can send it to someone who has the capability of burning some stencils for you or you can make/buy your own equiptment. Basicall all you need is a real clean piece of glass, a UV light, a developing tray, plactic tongs, and the developing chemical. You will need a room that you can darken. One stencil will mark many blades if cared for.

I also ran across a tread that gave instructions for making iron on stencils. Basically you creat your art that you want you stencil to look like. Because the iron on stencils are one use only I would reproduce several on a page. You then invert the coloration on the page. What is black in your design becomes white and visa versa. You then take it down to your local copy store and have that reproduced onto transparancy film. To use you clip out section, lay it over the place where you want to etch, lay a cloth over it, then iron over that. The object is to use the heat from the iron to cause the ink from the stencil to adhere to the steel and act like a resist. Where there is no ink the chemicals and electricity will etch the steel. There may be some fine points that I'm missing but it's in a file on my old computer and I'm having problems tranfering them.

Doug
 
I use a Marking Methods machine, much like the personalizer.
Over the years I've had stamps made that I used exclusively on my forged blades but I'm getting away from that and just etching now. Etching is very reliable once you get the hang of it and you don't have to worry about double or partial stamps. I started out with individual letter stamps and if you can figure out a way to keep everything alligned....let us all know. Also partial marks are a big problem with individual letters. Stay away from the vibrating engraver, I've never seen marks that look professional...just my opinion. Also if you have a stamp made, you can impress it into stencil material and etch with it . There's many ways to remove a cat's coat and a few tutorials available if you do a search. You can even make a cheap etcher yourself.
2011_0507canarydamascus0004.jpg ArmyHand2.jpg

The left is a stencil made by Earnie Gospitch and the right is my stamp impressed into stencil material. Go with the etcher if you can and cut out the mistakes and wasted money. Good luck.

Rudy
 
Stumbled across what sounds like a prison tat for knives, but from the pictures I've found on the internet, it looks to be effective. I'm gonna give it a try on some scrap and report back.

Firstly you will need the following items.

1.PP9 9 volt battery.
2.Battery connector.
3.2 Crocodile clips.
4.Cotton buds
5.Table salt
6.Water
7.Plastic bottle top.
8.Nail varnish
9.Needle

Method.

1.Clean metal surface, degrease, and leave to dry
2.Put a thin coat of nail varnish onto the metal surface and let it dry.
3.Place some salt and water into the plastic lid.
4.Connect the Positive (Red) battery lead to the metal with the crocodile clip.
5.Connect the Negative (Black) lead to the cotton bud with the crocodile clip.
6.Gently scratch the pattern onto the metal surface using a needle.
7.Dip the cotton bud into the salt water, then gently wipe the scratched surface with the wet cotton bud.

Note: The crocodile clip on the cotton bud must touch the wet bud. The cotton bud will start to go black as metal is removed. Stop every now and then and remove the blackened salt water so that you can see what you are doing.
 
If your wife doesn't like you stealing her nail varnish, or if you feel awkward buying it yourself, I've found that spray lacquer (I like black, the marks show up well against it) makes a good substitute. When the etching is finished, remove with vinyl gloves, an old but clean rag, and acetone.
 
I've heard its hard to gauge the etch against black, do you just go until the etch matches the black?

Hmmm, I've been using ferric chloride to etch (no electricity involved) and timing it. If you are using electricity, you are quite right, black might not be the best choice of color.

I'd originally used spray enamel, but recently had problems with it chipping, so started experimenting and settled on the lacquer. It doesn't seem to chip as readily when scratching the design in. One thing that works for me is to not quite let the lacquer dry before putting in the design, during the 'tacky but not runny' stage.

If anyone decides to try etching with ferric, be advised it works best on plain carbon steels, it does not work very well with damascus and may not do anything but stain stainless alloys. I use a 3 to 1 mix with distilled water, and it generally takes 1 1/2 hours to get a good deep etch.

I've been meaning to experiment with the electricity and saltwater method, but haven't got around to it yet...

Here is a good thread at British Blades on the subject of etching...Etching-the-Bushblade-way

Here's one I made a few years ago that I got a little carried away with the etching on...Diablo
 
I've tried vibrator engravers, professional trophy shop engravers (very nice and very expensive) and by hand, I'm no artist! I love the electronic etcher. Takes the guess work out, is repeatable, looks professional and mine will do both metal removal (looks like a frosted etch), and metal removal/replacement (very dark lines). good luck
 
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